Nikon have announced the acquisition of RED cameras.
The brand are responsible for a host of technological innovations, and are behind some top films and tv shows.
When you go to watch a movie or a TV show, you probably don't pay too much mind to how it came into existence. Many will just throw on one of the best streaming services and settle in for the evening.
But if you were to stop and dig deeper, you'd probably find that RED cameras were behind a lot of your favourites. Their repertoire includes a host of top titles including Guardians of the Galaxy and Spiderman.
Now, that company has been bought out by Nikon. According to a press release from the brand this morning, Nikon have acquired 100% of the company, subject to the closure of their negotiations.
The report goes on to talk about the future of the brand. Don't fear – there's no plan to dissolve it or similar. Instead, the brand will sit beneath the Nikon umbrella.
That's great news for the camera industry. The RED brand has achieved some fantastic things in the last few years. That includes early 4k cameras and their proprietary RAW compression technology.
Moving that level of proprietary technology under the umbrella of Nikon is likely to be a catalyst for it. The levels of funding on offer should be much higher, allowing those teams to work more efficiently and hopefully bringing more exciting technology to market in future.
That's only ever good news for us. If you're a camera enthusiast, that could mean better technology on your next device.
Even if you're not, it's still a good thing. Improving the quality of camera equipment is only going to push the boundaries of what is possible for filmmakers. We should see better technical options, which in turn should make the content filmed with them even better.
While there's no specific indication of what to expect – or indeed when to expect it – from this partnership, we'll be keeping a very close eye on it over the coming weeks and months.
